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The Wisdom of Pelicans
A Presbyterian pastor recounts how the public discovery of an extramarital affair for which he'd already confessed and repented cost him his job and marriage and describes his experiences of healing and renewed faith that followed.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published July 22, 2002
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2010
I rate this book a 3 because I vacillate between giving it a 4 or a 2.
A respected pastor and celebrated author commits adultery and is not found out. He moves from Florida to California to accept a position as the president of a prestigious theological seminary. He confesses his adultery to his wife, is divorced, marries the other woman, enters therapy, and sometime later is found out. Then the guano hits the fan.
This book is that pastor’s account of his wrenching emotional struggle during his passage through the meat girder of public humiliation. His reflections are organized around a series of meditations on the pelicans he observes during his frequent times alone on a Florida beach.
In The Wisdom of Pelicans, Donald McCullough challenges we Christians to face up to our awesome responsibility, when sinned against, to put away judgment and to minister forgiveness and restoration.
How to do that is more fully addressed in other books by other authors: for example, Forgive and Forget by Lewis Smedes, I Married You by Walter Trobisch, and Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs.
A respected pastor and celebrated author commits adultery and is not found out. He moves from Florida to California to accept a position as the president of a prestigious theological seminary. He confesses his adultery to his wife, is divorced, marries the other woman, enters therapy, and sometime later is found out. Then the guano hits the fan.
This book is that pastor’s account of his wrenching emotional struggle during his passage through the meat girder of public humiliation. His reflections are organized around a series of meditations on the pelicans he observes during his frequent times alone on a Florida beach.
In The Wisdom of Pelicans, Donald McCullough challenges we Christians to face up to our awesome responsibility, when sinned against, to put away judgment and to minister forgiveness and restoration.
How to do that is more fully addressed in other books by other authors: for example, Forgive and Forget by Lewis Smedes, I Married You by Walter Trobisch, and Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs.
June 12, 2009
A spiritual and emotional journey through a painfully dark time, exquisitely written.
This was my second reading. I am also a fan/observer of pelicans so I delighted in McCullough's keen observations, humorous personifications, and his apt analogies.
Mostly, I am thankful he recorded his journey with such intense honesty.
This was my second reading. I am also a fan/observer of pelicans so I delighted in McCullough's keen observations, humorous personifications, and his apt analogies.
Mostly, I am thankful he recorded his journey with such intense honesty.
January 26, 2015
When we fail; when we fall; when we are lower than low we need compassion, love, forgiveness and restoration. This book develops those themes through the authors own failures and ultimate recovery as God shows him the pelican way out.
August 15, 2014
Essays by a pastor and theologian whose suffered alienation and depression after an adulterous relationship became public. McCullough is thoughtful and reflective in his writing, yet his anger seems mostly directed against the church for their lack of forgiveness.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews